June | 2016 | Valentina Expressions

Curve | Valentina Cirasola | Interior Designer

21 Jun 2016 2 Comments

by Valentina in Home Designs Master Tags: #BuiltInDesign, #HomeDecor, #HomeRemodeling, #OldWorldDecor, #PommeleSapeleWood, #RoomAddition, #StoneFloorDesigns

“If it doesn’t exist in the market, I will design and build it”. It has been my mantra and my way to resolve the challenge of filling up spaces with container furniture that are functional and beautiful as well. I will add some pleasant curves to increase the beauty. Built-ins today are very straight and boxy with a lot of opens shelves. If you ask me, I will tell you they are unattractive and whenever possible I will suggest to build your own. If you do have that opportunity, make it a masterpiece.
(Click on each photo to view it larger).

The inspiration for this curvy built-in media unit came from the conversation between my clients, a young couple in their 30s, a couple who is into DIY. The room was an addition to the house, an empty box waiting to be beautified.

While I was designing the interior of this family room, I was designing also the landscape outside the window. The wife’s desire was to have an old world European room, with an antique flooring, droopy window treatment with a rich puddle and a faux finish on the wall. They had a very traditional taste, nothing I could not handle. I brought a Renaissance pattern to a tile maker and he reproduced it beautifully on the tiles that now surround the fireplace.

While all the workers looked busy bees, I was searching for the right furniture-accessories and overseeing all the workers. I love when everybody is working in unison and I hear the painter singing at the walls creating his faux finish (painters usually sing while they paint), tile setter creating the floor pattern, the fireplace was in construction mode and the man of the house followed my design to the teeth to produce the built-in with curves. That wood is Pommele Sapele, not extinct, only a precious species. It makes waves and ripples of water pattern, very pretty to look at. Three months later everyone reached the goal and the room came alive.

Curtains were the only thing not done. With the curvy landscape wrapping around the front of the house and framing the family room window so well, there was no need for the curtains anymore. Let the nature in. Ciao, Valentina
http://www.valentinadesigns.com

As a designer in business since 1990, I am interested in helping people designing their interior and exterior spaces with an overall feeling of peace, relaxation and harmony that will draw them home eagerly. I am always looking to add that special touch with original findings to the spaces I design. Featured on Vogue Italia magazine, Gentry and many prominent magazines in California, appeared on RAI, National Italian T.V., my stories continues. Find copies of my three books on
Amazon: http://goo.gl/xUZfk0
Barnes&Nobles: http://goo.gl/q7dQ3w

Wear A Hat Like A Duchess | Valentina Cirasola | Designer

17 Jun 2016 4 Comments

by Valentina in Friday Fashion Tags: #FloppyHats, #HatFashion, #HatsDosandDont, #PanamaHats, #WearingHats, #WhatToKnowAboutHats

Welcome to my Friday Fashion
Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge looks always impeccable with her hats. With the bevy of fashion advisers buzzing around her, why wouldn’t she be perfect?

What we see in the street it’s another story, not everyone is a duchess and not everybody has a face made for a hat. Out there we see a confused mixture of things and fashion faux pas. People wear everything in the latest fashion regardless of rules. To me the choice always lays only on what looks good on me.

Wearing a hat is not as easy as buying one and propping it on the head. One must understand the proportion
between face shape, body shape, shoulders and size of hat, how color of the hat affects the face and how to behave when wearing a hat. Let’s see what some hat shapes really do for us.

The latest fashionable Panama hat with a small brim everybody wears looks good on tall and not so tall women as long as the face is oval. This is not a hat for a round face. The Borsalino, a hat similar to a Panama with a larger brim fits better a round face.
(Click on each photo to view it larger).

(J.Crew-Panama-Women)

The floppy hat will swallow a small face on a short person. This hat is perfect for a tall woman with a wide open face or with an oval face and broad shoulders. The floppy hat must not be too droopy to the point of covering the face and it is not very becoming. Is there something to hide under there? That is what I would think.

(Urban Outfitter Floppy Hat)

A hat with wide soft brim should be contained within the shoulders as this one from French Connection below.

French Connection Wide Brim
French Connection

A wide turned up brim hat is not for women with a round face either, as it enhances the roundness of the face, but a turned down brim hat will disguise a wide face, it is perfect for oval faces and women with a short forehead. A forehead is considered short if the distance between hairline and eyebrows is less than 3” – thus this person should wear hats more towards the back of the head and not over the forehead.

The face is the most important feature. We wear hats as a protection from the sun, to make an outfit original, to look stylish, to accent an outfit and to enhance the face not to suppress it. Colors will reverberate on the face. If the hat is black and the skin pale, the face will look even more pale with the reflection of the black color on the skin. If the skin has a pink tone stay away from yellow color hats. Shoulders come into this play as well. If shoulders are too wide and the hat is small, the person will be out of proportion and vice versa.
Fashion is all about proportions, we need to know how to build them.

Ball caps are for men and this is my opinion. Women wear them for a bad hair day, to a football game, shopping for groceries, or to stroll a baby in the park. Ball caps do absolutely nothing to improve a woman’s beauty. I would suggest to leave them to the men and relegate the sweat suit to the gym only.

Hats determine the way we behave and walk. Have you ever tried on a hat in the store? Suddenly you feel different, suddenly you see yourself in a different light.
A hat almost imposes us to adopt a style that makes us feel special and completes our character.

Women have stopped wearing hats on an everyday basis in the name of freedom from frills and I am all for that, we all have a hectic life. What I don’t understand is why women have adopted a careless way to cover the body with clothes that often are not suitable for who they are. The way famous women dressed a long time ago still appeals to us and we are still admiring their style, why is it….? What are we unconsciously missing…? Maybe it is time to change. Ciao,
Valentina
https://valentinadesigns.com/services#fashion-services

Valentina Cirasola is a trained Fashion and Interior Designer, born in Italy in a family of artists. Style surrounded her since the beginning of her life. Her many years of experience led her to offer consultations in both specializations and now she can remodel homes as well as personal images. To better help people in the world she offers consultations online. She is the author of three books. Get your copy of Valentina’s book on colors: ©RED-A Voyage Into Colors on
Amazon: http://goo.gl/qNxXrB
Barnes&Nobles: http://goo.gl/q7dQ3w

Bring Nature In: Flirtatious Mix | Valentina Cirasola | Interior Designer

10 Jun 2016 1 Comment

by Valentina in Home Designs Master Tags: #AmnesiaRoses, #CactusBesutyTreatment, #CactusPant, #JadeStone, #KunziteStone, #Lilac, #SeaFoamandDustyRose

Roses have thorns and yet we plant them all over gardens. The type of cactus in the photo might not be the prettiest plant to place in the garden, but I looked beyond the thorns and purchased it anyway despite of the cashier’s disgusted face. Prickly pear is the colorful fruit this plant produces in the summer. It is sweet, full of Vitamin C and refreshing to beat the summer heat. The burst of orange, red and yellow of the oval-shaped pears is just a delight to admire against a blue sky in the background.
(Click on each photo to view it larger).

Cactus plant has many healthy properties and if used as a beauty treatment can be applied on hair and skin. To nourishes the hair cut the large flat leaves in small pieces, put them in a bowl full of water and soak overnight to soften the pulp. Apply the pulp on hair and keep it on for 20-30 minutes or longer if you can stand it. Rinse with warm water and wash hair with your favorite shampoo.
The slimy interior part of a cactus function as emollient on irritated skin, bruises and cuts as well as a facial masque.
In the south of Italy we use the large flat leaves of this type of cacti as rustic plates to eat salads off of it, without the thorns of course.

Looking at this cactus in my garden I see how green, lavender, beige and dusty rose create a flirtatious mix of feminine colors. A sitting room made for a woman comes to mind, a room where she wants to sit with a friend or a sister to talk about life issues, or a place where to read in peace. The colors of this cactus are hard to classify because the green area is not really green, but a mix of sage and sea-foam, the rose color of the redwood fence in the background could be called dusty rose, dirty rose, or even light red-purple, while the red tone of the thorns could be crimson, burgundy or maybe maroon.

Colors appear very different from one person to another because, it depends on how our eyes filter the light. Some people see more yellow tone, some see more red or blue tones and some are color blind with certain colors, thus we tend to name colors as our eyes see them. Knowing the difference is the designer‘s job, we rely on the fan deck of colors ready to use as shown on the chip. However, one other tricky aspect of obtaining the right color is to observe how the light shines on a particular color. The same color will look very different in the morning and in the night, or under an incandescent bulb or L.E.D light.

One of my clients painted a large living room in dark green and although it looked sharp in the morning with her beige seating arrangement and white window trims, at night that dark green on the walls looked dark grey and made the room very uninviting. The trees outside the windows were not illuminated and created the dark cave effect inside. We changed the walls to a golden caramel color which gave the room a sweet, bon-bon like character, we illuminated the trees closer to the windows to extend the room visually and thus eliminated visually the boundaries of walls. The exterior and the interior became one whole entity.

We need to study the environment and understand why when we paint that color we liked so much, it doesn’t look as good on the wall as it does on the color chip. Everything outside will reverberate inside, bounce off walls and furniture, then cast a color reflection inside, that’s why my cactus looks a bit lavender at the top of the buds. The distressed redwood fence in a sunny early afternoon day is casting its pinkish tone.

Jade

Kunzite

Since this is a feminine color palette, the décor of the room should include some lilac Amnesia Roses, rosy sheer window treatment and a couple natural stones:
1. One stone in green tone such as a jade to give you mental clarity and protecting heart, visions and stomach.
2. One stone in pink-lilac color as a Kunzite (named after mineralogist George Frederick Kunz who discovered it in 1902) to bring a calming, peaceful effect in the room. Kunzite stimulates connection between heart and brain.
Both stones will clean and activate the Heart Chakra.

I hope you get to experiment with some of my color palette suggestions, when in doubt you can always contact me. Ciao,
Valentina
http://www.valentinadesigns.com

Bring Nature In: Bloom in Apricot Color | Valentina Cirasola | Interior Designer

05 Jun 2016 Leave a comment

by Valentina in Home Designs Master Tags: #ApricotColor, #ApricotColorPalette, #BrownandApricot, #InteriorColors, #NatureColors, #NatureInspiredColors, #RedVoyageIntoColors

Welcome to a new episode of Bring Nature In. Twice a week for the next thirty days a will write about new décor solutions inspired by nature.

You would think growing an apricot tree is a very hard task, not at all, it’s the easiest thing in the world. Apricot trees resist moderate period of drought. The well-established trees only need to be watered in extreme conditions.

A few years ago for the entire season of the apricots, I ate organic apricots bought at a regular market, threw the pits in the same spot in my garden, water it regularly with the rest of plants and forgot it. Next spring the first apricot tree was born, then I tried it again and two more trees were born. Today, I don’t need to buy apricots at the store, they are abundant in my backyard, I eat them off the trees and make marmalade out of them. Pruning is necessary at the end of the apricot season to get an abundant production in the next year, especially must eliminate the damaged branches and those growing close together. (Click on each photo to view it larger).

(Apricots grown in my garden from pits)

Apricots have antioxidant properties, thus considered a fountain of youth. If you have a tree, eat them fresh as they mature, and dry the rest to eat through the winter. The beta-carotene in the apricots prevents the degeneration of retina cells and the iron in them is suitable for treatment of anemia. The potassium in fresh and dried apricots prevents fluid retention in the body, helping people control their weight and hypertension. In between meals, fresh apricots suppress hunger and provide carbohydrates in the form of a good source of sugar.

Apricot blooms smell sweet, the small flowers are very delicate, transparent, almost paper like, the color is generally white-pinkish, with an occasional burst of dark pink and yellow pistil shoots. This is a perfect color palette for a bedroom.

Let’s start with a dark wood or brown leather headboard to ground and disintegrate all the electromagnetism in the bedroom: TV, alarm clock, computer, iPhone and more and more, we like to bring all that stuff into bedroom. For warmth add a lush, rich color hardwood floor that will also absorb all the electricity around you.
Paint apricot orange the wall behind the bed headboard. That rich apricot color will soften the leather or wood headboard and will positively energized you when you get up in the morning. Paint the rest of the room in Off White. To add a touch of elegance, try pure silk sheets on the bed and will never return to anything else, promised. Mix a few lush apricot throw pillows mixed with red or dark pink pillows.

With a leather headboard and silk sheets, this representation looks very much a contemporary décor, thus I envision a white leather or white upholstered bench at the feet of the bed and a modern, sculpted white dresser. The left corner of a room is the wealth corner, Feng Shui theory says so. This is where you should finish the décor with hanging baubles holding cacti or air plant, or a plant that doesn’t require much care and water.

How you want to bloom every day is up to you, just remember that a touch of a bold color will change your day’s energy. Ciao,
Valentina
http://www.valentinadesigns.com

As a designer in business since 1990, I am interested in helping people designing their interior and exterior spaces with an overall feeling of peace, relaxation and harmony that will draw them home eagerly. I am always looking to add that special touch with original findings to the spaces I design. Featured on Vogue Italia magazine, Gentry and many prominent magazines in California, appeared on RAI-National Italian T.V., my stories continues. Find copies of my three books on
Amazon: http://goo.gl/qNxXrB
Barnes&Nobles: http://goo.gl/q7dQ3w

Feeling Cool In Cool Fashion Colors | Valentina Cirasola | Designer

03 Jun 2016 Leave a comment

by Valentina in Friday Fashion Tags: #2016PantoneColors, #2016SpringColors, #QuartzColor, #SerenityandQuartz, #SpringCapelet

Welcome to a new episode of my Friday Fashion.
All the pastel spring/summer colors of this year are creeping up in my wardrobe and I am letting them for the first time. Men and women will wear pastel colors indifferently as pink (Quartz) is a new color for men and light blue (Serenity) for women, or both together to create a hipster combination for both sexes. It is a symbolic color combination that represents what is going on in our culture. (Click on each photo to view it larger).

Pink for men seems a new extravagance to mark the duality of society, so it has been said, but those of us who have studied History of Costume know that in 1500-1700 men wore pink ruffled shirts under a jerkin and women wore intricate embroidered light blue dresses. These two unisex pastels were the most common of the pastels gamma that men and women used in that era interchangeably.

(Pink Jerkin – circa 1700s)

I am balancing and calming my year with pastel colors compatible with my skin tone that will also care for my wellness and tranquility. Rose Quartz is a gentle tone, Blue Serenity echoes a serene sky, Lint or green tone brings a closer attachment to earth.

(My new fashion ensembles)

(DressLily.com)

The light colors of 2016 challenge traditional perceptions of color association, which I would have not done in the past. I will try anything and challenge my thoughts before saying: “It’s not for me” and after realizing I might not like it much, at least I will feel cooler in cool colors this spring and summer. The floral capelet is lightweight and versatile, the two layers allow it to wear as a large scarf, as a shoulder wrap. The large flower in the waist turns into a belt and a necklace, as necessity occurs. The sweet flower bag is new, just arrived and matches well with the new color scheme.

Just remember that your personal colors need to be revised every couple of years, as we add texture, new coloration and age to our skin.
Enjoy a cool summer in cool colors. Ciao,
Valentina
https://valentinadesigns.com/services#fashion-services

Valentina Cirasola is a trained Fashion and Interior Designer, born in Italy in a family of artists. Style surrounded her since the beginning of her life. Her many years of experience led her to offer consultations in both specializations and now she can remodel homes as well as personal images. To better help people in the world she offers consultations online. She is the author of three books. Get your copy of Valentina’s book on colors: ©RED-A Voyage Into Colors on
Amazon: http://goo.gl/qNxXrB
Barnes&Nobles: http://goo.gl/q7dQ3w

Bring Nature In: Purple Wisdom | Valentina Cirasola | Interior Designer

02 Jun 2016 Leave a comment

by Valentina in Home Designs Master Tags: #GrassclothWallpaper, #PurpleAmethyst, #PurpleColor, #PurpleColorPalette, #PurpleWisdom, #Quartz, #RedVoyageIntoColors

Legend says the name for the Iris flower came from a Greek Goddess who rode the rainbow. Love the legend and I love how this flower as delicate as it might look, it’s a hardy plant, perennial, easy to plant, easy to care for and very reliable. It attracts butterflies and hummingbirds, something you want to see roaming in your garden. Place the Iris in partly shaded area or morning sun area, never in a scorching full sun and they will grow luxuriant.
Among the 300 Iris species available Birded Iris is the easiest to grow, it blooms in late spring after tulips, daffodils, peonies and poppies. Bearded Iris likes to be divided every few years and from the rhizome (root bulb) after blooming is over, otherwise its blade-like leaves will not bloom into flowers much. Iris flowers come in a wide variety and hybrids. Water Iris likes to live near a pond or a water source, but doesn’t like to be planted directly in the water.

Water the Iris not so often especially if the ground is covered with mulch, bark chips or stone pebbles all moisture retaining materials. Feeding and fertilizing a perennial is just as easy. Nitrogen, Phosphorus and Potassium are the basic element of their food and in that order are represented on the bag with numbers, for ex. 5-10-10 or 5-10-5 or 10-10-10, thus choose a fertilizer with the middle number no lower than the other two. Basically you want the Phosphorus to be the highest number. Now that you have planted a beautiful patch of Iris, bring those colors in.

I have my patch of Iris across from kitchen door leading to the kitchen spice garden (all the spices I need for cooking). Inside, in my eating area, I have an attractive purple wall that at night creates beautiful atmospheres according to the type of lights I turn on. That’s right a dark color wall requires games of lights. (Click on each photo to view it larger).

My color board is self-explanatory, however to add a more natural environment in your home décor with this color palette and to soften the purple boldness, consider using a grasscloth wallpaper on three walls (see it in my board background) and one wall in purple, with the rest of the colors in this scheme used on furniture and accessories.

In your purple wisdom décor, add some purple amethyst stone to carry the energy of fire, passion, creativity and spirituality into your space wherever you will have this purple palette. Purple amethyst is a semi-precious stone highly esteemed for its legendary powers to stimulate and soothe mind-emotions. Purple amethyst is part of the Quartz family considered as precious as diamonds in ancient civilizations.

Another name for amethyst is “Gem of Fire” for all its passions and power to increase intelligence, even augmenting shrewdness in business matters. For this reason, purple is advisable in creative spaces and offices.

Like all the purple expressions, purple amethyst is associated with royals and religious people signifying dignity or higher status. This is a stone that protects against evil and connects to the Divine. Today we use it in meditation as a stone of spirituality to bring the mind to a quiet state and to purify a person’s aura of any negative energy. Ciao,
Valentina
http://www.valentinadesigns.com

As a designer in business since 1990, I am interested in helping people designing their interior and exterior spaces with an overall feeling of peace, relaxation and harmony that will draw them home eagerly. I am always looking to add that special touch with original findings to the spaces I design. Featured on Vogue Italia magazine, Gentry and many prominent magazines in California,
appeared on RAI, National Italian T.V., my stories continues. Find copies of my three books on
Amazon: http://goo.gl/xUZfk0
Barnes&Nobles: http://goo.gl/q7dQ3w